Have you ever heard Hollywood
liberals talk about suspected Islamic jihadists the way
they talk about suspected Republican
"book-banners"?
The
September 11 terrorist attacks didn't turn
celebrity leftists into hawks. But the minute they
started reading
false rumors about Sarah Palin restricting
unfettered access to
"Daddy's Roommate" and "Heather Has Two Mommies" in her hometown library, Tinseltown's
docile doves became militant warmongers.

And now we know what keeps feminist
playwrights like Eve Ensler ("The
Vagina Monologues") awake at night. Not Iranian
nuclear ambitions or al Qaeda beheading videos. She is
haunted by nightmares of Bible-thumping, book-burning
Sarah Palin. A McCain/Palin ticket
"is one of the most dangerous choices" of her lifetime, Ensler
seethed in her viral call-to-arms
e-mail, because
"Sarah Palin does
not much believe in thinking," The evidence:
"From what I
gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has
a tendency to dispense with people who think
independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of
ambiguity and difference."

Classic projection. Damon, Ensler
and the anti-censorship crusaders are the unthinking
ones who can't tolerate independence, ambiguity and
difference. The rumormongers continue to spread a bogus
banned book list attributed to Palin that includes books
not even published at the time she served as mayor. No
city records corroborate Internet reports that she tried
to keep anti-homosexual books, as gay lobbying
organizations have claimed, or any other books off
government-funded library shelves available to children.

And even if she did inquire about
the process, so what? Regulating age-appropriate content
is only alarming to the same kind of civil liberties
extremists who oppose reasonable filtering of sexually
explicit material in public spaces. Who is scarier:
hockey moms who want to put tax-subsidized books about
lesbian couples out of reach of kindergarteners or
Hollyweird ideologues who want to ensure that homeless
people can
surf porn websites in your neighborhood library?

"Just 'carelessly' hide the boxes, 'accidentally' drop them off pallets,
'forget' to stock the ones you have, and then suggest a
nice Al Franken or Michael Moore book as a substitute
...

"I don't care if these Neandertals (sic) in fancy suits get mad at me,
they aren't regular customers anyway. Other than 'Left
Behind' books, they don't read. Anything you can do to
make them feel unwelcome is only fair. They are the
people pushing retailers to cut costs, don't forget. And
they would censor your speech, your books, your music in
a heartbeat, so give them a taste of it!"

Where were they when
left-wing hitman David Brock of Media Matters for
America sent a demand letter to Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and
Barnes & Noble urging them to pull
"Unfit for
Command" from their shelves?

Where were they two years ago when
two Democrat lawmakers, New Jersey Assemblywomen Joan
Quigley and Linda Stender, called on merchants to ban
the sale of
Ann Coulter's book, Godless,
because of her remarks about anti-Bush 9/11 widows.
"No one in New
Jersey should buy this book and allow Ann Coulter to
profit from her hate-mongering," the politicians
lashed out. "We
are asking New Jersey retailers statewide to stand with
us and express their outrage by refusing to carry or
sell copies of Coulter's book. Her hate-filled attacks
on our 9-11 widows has no place on New Jersey
bookshelves."

And where are they now? Stewing in
their salons and screenwriting rooms. Concocting horror
stories about terrifying Christian conservative bogeymen
who threaten peace, tolerance, independent thought,
ambiguity and difference. Patting themselves and each
other on the backs as the valiant protectors of dissent.